Deputy Labour Minister Vasilis Kegeroglou said that speculation about pension cuts from January belonged to the “sphere of propaganda” during his address of Parliament on Saturday.

During the debate on the 2015 draft budget he said that many people whose funds were currently being withheld would see small increases from December.

He said the government was persisting on its basic principles in spite of “unreasonable demands and stifling pressure” during the negotiations with Greece’s creditors, some of whom he said “were getting an unexpected helping hand from the domestic front.”

Mr. Kegeroglou said the guaranteed income scheme on a pilot basis is designed to deal with extreme poverty and includes programs for social welfare and rejoining the labor market.

“Its approval is expected in the coming days, and it will be the first operational program that will be approved to support 165,000 families of our weakest fellow citizens,” he said.

He noted that the ministry was cooperating with 62 agencies to provide shelter and a return to the job market for some 1,200 homeless people and had introduced a program providing support for 650,00 three-child and large-membered families.